Moves to set up Shimanta Bank in six months
Border Guard Bangladesh got the green signal from the Prime Minister’s Office to launch a commercial bank, Shimanta Bank, within six months, said officials.
‘We are advancing with all the formalities necessary to set up a bank since the prime minister gave approval in principle,’ the BGB director general, major general Aziz Ahmed, told New Age in a recent interview at his office.
The BGB chief on Sunday met Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman to discuss about the formation of the bank. Atiur advised Aziz to submit a formal proposal to the central bank which issues banking licences.
BGB officials said that the initiative has been taken as the part of an ongoing reconstruction process in the paramilitary force, which faced a bloody rebellion on February 25-26, 2009 in which 75 people, including 57 military officers deputed from army, were killed.
The bank will be started with a paid up capital of Tk 400 crore initially.
‘We have already arranged Tk 100 crore from the Border Guards Welfare Trust and we are trying to arrange rest of the amount,’ said Aziz, adding that a banking professional has already been engaged to work on the project.
The BGB chief said the bank will come into operation within six months, to become the country’s 57th scheduled bank.
Bangladesh Bank executive director Mahfuzur Rahman told New Age that the BGB chief had a meeting with the Bangladesh Bank governor on Sunday.
The bank will initially open its main branch at the under constructed Shimanta Shambhar building at Peelkhana.
The director general of the paramilitary force will be the chairman of the board of directors which will include a few other BGB officials.
‘We will follow the model of Trust Bank to make it profitable,’ the BGB chief said, adding, ‘Our mission is to provide loan at easy-terms to our members for their better living and medical purposes.’
The Bangladesh Army operates the Trust Bank since 1999 sponsored by the Army Welfare Trust, the first of its kind in the country.
Apart from the Trust Bank, the Ansar-VDP Unnayan Bank, a specialised bank only for members of Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence party, has been in operation since 1995.
-With New Age input
